CAREER: Re-envisioning Engineering Pedagogy to Support a Range of Visuo-spatial Skills
Project PI: Dr. Grace Panther
Amount and Years: $649,950, 2024 - 2029
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2339207
The aim of this project will be to transform the engineer-formation system by applying an anti-deficit perspective to re-envision engineering pedagogy to support a range of visuo-spatial skills. This project will be the first comprehensive and theory-based study exploring the strategies used by students to navigate visuo-spatial challenges in engineering.
Collaborative Research: Intercultural Competencies ‘In the Wild’: Exploring Situated Intercultural Competency Development in Graduate Engineering Research Environments
Project PI's: Drs. Jessica Deters, Catherine Berdanier (Penn State)
Amount and Years: $599,566, 2024 - 2027
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2414169 and 2414170
The purpose of this project is to investigate how graduate engineering students develop intercultural competencies "in the wild" in authentic academic research laboratory environments. Given that over 58% of engineering doctoral students across U.S. institutions are international, the research laboratory becomes a place that, if harnessed, could facilitate intercultural competency development for both U.S. and international students as future thought-leaders.
Collaborative Research: The Engineering Master's Workforce: Leveraging Natural Language Processing Techniques to Understand Employer Demands and Student Goals
Project PI's: Drs. Jessica Deters, Maura Borrego (UT-Austin), Andrew Katz (Virginia Tech)
Project Co-PI: Dr. David Knight (Virginia Tech)
Amount and Years: $348,247, 2025 - 2028
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2433099, 2433100, and 2433101
This project will advance novel applications of natural language processing (NLP) coupled with interview research to understand the skills and benefits of terminal engineering master's degrees. This research will fill an important gap in research on master's-level engineering students, building knowledge about motivations for pursuing a master's degree and employer expectations, including the most marketable skills. The NLP approaches developed in this project will apply to other employment sectors, disciplines, education research questions, and fields beyond engineering education research.
Communication, Collaboration, Coordination: Preparing Postdoctoral Fellows to be Embedded in Engineering Disciplines
Project PI: Dr. Heidi Diefes-Dux
Project Co-PI's: Drs. Jessica Deters, Grace Panther, & Logan Perry
Amount and Years: $1,208,862, 2024 - 2027
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2430498
Engineering education (EER) PhD graduates are increasingly being hired into education research faculty positions in technical engineering departments. These positions present multiple challenges for new EER graduates. One particular challenge is lack of experience with navigating the cultural and expertise differences between engineering education and the technical engineering disciplines. The proposed project is designed to develop three postdoctoral fellows' capacity to span these disciplinary boundaries so that they can solve complex education problems in engineering. While engaging in engineering education research, fellows will grow their "3Cs" boundary spanning competencies of communication, collaboration, and coordination. Ultimately, the outcomes of this postdoctoral program have the potential to inform similar postdoctoral programs, providing invaluable postdoctoral training experiences for future STEM education researchers.
BPE-Track 4: Phase I: Developing Complete Engineers: Nebraska Engineering Inclusive Excellence Center (NEIEC)
Project PI: Dr. Lance Perez
Project Co-PIs: Dr. Jessica Deters, Logan Perry, Trish Wonch Hill, & Yusong Li
Amount and Years: $1,999,999, 2024 - 2026
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2408749
NEIEC aims to cultivate a diverse engineering workforce by providing education to individuals from varied backgrounds, equipping them with essential technical, professional, and personal skills, and fostering their engineering identity.
BPE-Track 1: Collaborative Research: Planning: Developing Accessible Pathways to Civil Engineering Industry for Students with Disabilities: Initiating Partnerships with Industry
Project PI's: Drs. Logan Perry, Cassandra McCall (Utah State University), and Andrew Gillen (Northeastern University)
Amount and Years: $100,000, 2024 - 2025
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2329942
This project will establish a pioneering university-industry-student partnership aimed at facilitating equitable access and transition into civil engineering careers for individuals with disabilities. This planning grant will contribute to a deeper understanding of existing scholarship and current industry perspectives, provide a framework for developing partnerships between academia and industry, and blaze a trail forward for creating a more diverse and inclusive engineering workforce through the following outcomes: (1) synthesizing relevant literature; (2) identifying and engaging industry stakeholders to explore collaborative tensions and synergies among industry stakeholders; and (3) developing a robust research agenda for the next phases of the project.
Enhancing Engineering Students' Ability to Think Deeply about their Learning Through Formal and Continuous Reflection
Project PI: Dr. Heidi Diefes-Dux
Project Co-PIs: Drs. Grace Panther & Logan Perry
Amount and Years: $597,668, 2023 - 2026
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2235227
This project aims to serve the national interest by improving engineering students' ability to reflect deeply on their learning. An ability to reflect is a necessary workforce skill. It helps one to learn on their own at work. It is needed for U.S. innovation and economic competitiveness. This project is significant because it focuses on investigating the use of reflection activities across entire engineering degree programs. Engineering teachers will be trained to create and use reflection activities in their classrooms. Practical teacher resources to build reflective capacity will be created. One target outcome is students with a well-developed ability to use reflection to guide their learning as they do engineering work. A second outcome sought is a change in engineering teaching practices.
REU Site: Unpacking the Significance and Rigor of Engineering Education Research
Project PI: Dr. Grace Panther
Project Co-PI: Dr. Heidi Diefes-Dux
Amount and Years: $392,226, 2023 - 2026
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2244323
This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site project will support the training of eight students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2023-2025. Students will be engaged in investigating questions in the area of engineering education research. Professional development activities will help students improve their research and workplace people skills. Professional development activities will be held weekly and include topics such as preparing for the graduate record exam, writing personal statements, networking, finding and reading research, writing about research findings, and mock research presentations.
Research: Evidencing Epidemic Change in Engineering Education: Shedding Light on Instructor Adaptability and Course Complexity for Sustained Change
Project PI: Dr. Heidi Diefes-Dux
Project Co-PI: Dr. Grace Panther
Amount and Years: $349,997, 2021 - 2024
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2105156
The objective of this project will be to investigate and document the effects of COVID-19 on engineering faculty’s teaching practices and sustained use of a wide array of teaching practices and strategies (WATPS) relative to their adaptability and course complexity. Outcomes from this work include a typology of teaching complexity, knowledge of instructor adaptability, and rich descriptions of course complexity trends. These outcomes will help inform a Program of Tiered Commitments that engineering colleges, departments, and faculty developers can use to support instructors’ adoption of best teaching practices
Improving Engineering Student Engagement, Self-Efficacy, Diversity Awareness, and Retention using Visualization and Virtual/Augmented Reality Technologies
Project PI: Drs. Ece Erdogmus (Georgia Tech)
Project Co-PIs: Drs. Heidi Diefes-Dux, Erica Ryherd, Kyungki Kim, & Catherine Armwood-Gordon (Tennessee State University)
Amount and Years: $1,700,000, 2021 - 2026
Funding: National Science Foundation Award #2111561
This project serves the national interest by creating visualization and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) education modules in architectural engineering and construction (AEC) courses that will help improve students’ persistence in the program, self-confidence, and diversity awareness.